What are the Benefits of Using Encore?

Joining Encore is a great way of promoting yourself or your act online, networking with other music professionals, and winning more bookings.

But what separates Encore from other booking sites?

Here we explain why we think the platform provides you with some of the best tools to advance your career in live music online.

In each case, we break down how Encore compares to other services. A personal website set up yourself, a listings site which allows you to promote yourself on their site in return for a fee, and a traditional agency which takes a higher commission in return for a more hands-on approach to getting you bookings.

Contents:

The Encore community

Great value

Promotion

Secure and fair payment

Artist support and development

A better client experience

A note on the Encore community

As a relatively new service for musicians, we’ve been able to rethink what it means to book musicians online, first with a team comprised of musicians and computer scientists and now with experienced marketing, sales and design professionals among the Encore ranks. More important than any one team member’s work though, has been the support and continual feedback from Encore members which we’re extremely grateful for.

None of the features listed below would have come about if it weren’t for the generous people who believe in a better future for musicians as much as we do. If you’re one of them – thank you! If you’re not so sure, please read on and let us know what you think – we thrive on honest feedback!

Encore members at Encore Drinks

Great value

At Encore we only ever charge our members when they get booked for a gig through the site. Our Service fee is always 20% (lower than most agencies*) and is transparently displayed to you whenever you quote for a gig, so you always know how much you’re taking home. Learn more about the Service fee here.

*In a recent survey of the 10 most popular online music agencies (according to Google search results), we found that the average commission taken was 27%, with most charging around 20% and more established agents charging up to 50%. Of these, half did not display their commission publicly to either musicians or clients.

Marketing and promotion

If you’ve set up your Encore profile correctly and clicked “View as public” you’ll have seen that joining Encore provides you with a first-class online shop window for clients to browse and inquire about your services.

Having great media is essential for online promotion, so we also provide you with discounts with our photography and videography partners to give you access to stunning imagery without breaking the bank.

One exclusive Encore member discount

But the promotion Encore provides doesn’t just stop there. We employ full-time marketing and sales professionals who help get your profile in front of potential clients across the UK. From a technical angle, we also have a team of full-time developers using the latest tools and methodologies to optimise your profile for increased numbers of enquiries.

Service

Online portfolio

Boosted SEO; Facebook and Google advertising

Sales team (calling clients to encourage them to book)

Automated client prompting system (if they don’t reply to a message)

Discounted promo materials

Personal website

✓

Listing websites

✓

Some

Agencies

✓

Some

✓

✓

Encore

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Secure and fair payment

One thing which is very important to us as a company of musicians and music-lovers ourselves, is that musicians on Encore are being paid securely and fairly.

The number of horror stories we’ve heard of musicians going out and putting on brilliant performances only to be underpaid or to have to chase the client for payment is astonishing. And we want to do our bit to help bring a stop to this behaviour.

With a mixture of pricing guidance and advanced technology, we’ve built a system which ensures musicians always get the payment they deserve, without putting off price-conscious clients.

Unlike personal websites and listings sites, we can control what clients pay, and take payment in advance before releasing it to you after a booking, so you never have to worry about chasing clients. But unlike some agencies, we still give you control over what you charge (assuming it is above the minimum rate for that booking).

Service

Control over price and brand

Minimum musician rates to prevent undercutting

Minimum client budgets

Guaranteed payout within 5 working days of the gig

Guaranteed deposit payment

Personal website

✓

Listing websites

✓

Agencies

Some

Some

Encore

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Artist support and development

Working as a musician can be a lonely job. The support structures which exist in a typical nine-to-five – education programmes, helpful advice, professional communities – are much harder to come by in the world of freelancers.

So we’ve always made it part of our mission to ensure that Encore’s musicians are supported with useful advice and support from the moment they sign up, to securing a client review after a booking.

As well as having our bookings team on standby 24/7 to assist with your bookings, we have in-person events, online forum discussions, and blog guides offering insights on everything from client psychology to filming your showreel. Also, as a tech-first company, we’re also able to provide insights into your booking analytics to help you understand your competition, and quickly calculate your earnings when tax season comes around.

Your bookings dashboard gives you analytics on your Encore bookings

Service

Help pages

Musician blog guides

24/7 bookings support

Online member forum

Member events and webinars

Booking analytics

Personal website

Listing websites

Typically single FAQ page

✓

Some

Agencies

Typically single FAQ page

✓

✓

Encore

100+ article help centre

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

A better client experience

Finally, we think Encore is a better experience for clients. But why does this matter to musicians?

We believe that by making it incredibly simply and secure for anyone to book musicians, more people will consider booking musicians overall, leading to increase in demand for live music. Just as the simplicity of booking accommodation on Airbnb has opened up locations which many people would never had considered before the platform existed (their most popular listing is a treehouse in Atlanta!), we want to open up live music booking to people who currently find it too much hassle.

Other sites do offer opportunities for clients looking to book musicians, but we think Encore provides the best solution.

Personal websites are great for giving clients an idea of your unique brand, but lack functionality beyond the point of getting in touch. The level of support and payment security is only as good as that which the musician can provide themselves.

Listings sites sacrifice the personality of a website in favour of giving the client a standardised way of comparing and enquiring with musicians. However, their service stops at this point. As a client, I’m unsure of how payment will work and will usually be reliant upon the musician for support in the event that anything goes wrong.

Agencies tend to rely upon less automated methods of payment and support, typically specialising in building a roster of musicians from a particular locality or genre. This means they’re unable to provide the range of musicians available on a platform like Encore. Though they are able to offer a high level of support to clients, sometimes transparency around payment and the musicians’ identity is sacrificed to reduce the risk of circumvention and losing their high commission.

We think Encore offers clients the best of both worlds – the transparency of communication and breadth of choice of a listings site, while giving clients excellent agency-level support from the moment they begin browsing musicians through to the checkout and beyond.

Service

Direct communicat-ion between musicians and client

Guaranteed replacement musician at 48 hours notice

24/7 phone support

UK’s largest selection of musicians

Simple online card payment

Personal website

✓

Listing websites

✓

Some

Agencies

Some

✓

Encore

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

I hope this gives you a good idea of how the Encore platform is different from the typical bookings sites you find on the internet.

If you have any ideas for how Encore could be improved, please email us with your thoughts at [email protected]

If you’re a musician looking for bookings, you can sign up for your free account here.

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